The Philadelphia Chapter recently held its first happy hour as part of their new series, One Building One Brew. The group gathered at the Rohm and Haas Building (George M. Ewing & Company and Pietro Belluschi, 1964) where they engaged in a lively discussion led by Ben Leech, Bradley Maule, and William Whitaker.

News surrounding Marcel Breuer-designed buildings across the country continues to hold surprises, including Atlanta’s Central Library Building. Last week, as Docomomo US awarded the restoration of The Met Breuer with a Citation of Merit in the 2016 Modernism in America Awards, Atlanta’s City Councilman C.T. Martin brought forth an unexpected resolution approving the demolition "a new library be built at its present location" for the Central Library. This stunning development quickly mobilized advocates for the Library including Friends of the Central Atlanta Library (FOCAL), Docomomo US/Georgia and Docomomo US who draft letters of response. Advocates also launched a petition calling for the “Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System Board of Trustees to take action to protect the Central Library and Library System Headquarters Building.”

Docomomo US MN’s annual spring Mod Mixer brings together Modernism enthusiasts from across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro at a local Modern furniture store. The Mixer is just one of the many events Docomomo US MN hosts throughout the year to stimulate an interest in and educate the public about Modern design in Minnesota and to advocate for its preservation.

The National Register-listed Nuclear Reactor Building isn't looking too good these days. The University of Washington (UW) erected a chain link fence around the site in May to prepare for demolition. On June 20, the University began deconstructing the building—WITHOUT a demolition permit. The UW submitted a demolition application in early May but evidently just could not wait to start destroying this significant structure.

On Wednesday, June 15th, the Docomomo US New York/Tri-State chapter celebrated the legacy of the iconic, Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons Restaurant in Manhattan with their second biannual fundraising event, A Modern Affair. This event was designed to build on the success of the chapter’s first fundraiser, held in 2014 at the Alvar Aalto Rooms of the Edgar J. Kaufmann Conference Center, and to benefit the preservation education and advocacy efforts of the chapter. A Modern Affair also offered an opportunity to honor Phyllis Lambert, whose vision enabled the creation of the landmark interior space.

Docomomo US is pleased to announce ten winners of the 2016 Modernism in America Awards program. These projects are exemplary of the efforts going on all over the country as the awareness of the importance to advocate, restore and celebrate the architecture, landscapes and typologies of postwar society in the United States continues to expand.

When General Electric first suggested that it might pull its corporate headquarters out of Connecticut, in June of 2015, the company’s rationale appeared to be taxes and the business climate. But when it made the actual announcement in January that it would move to Boston, the message had changed.

The corporate campus for PepsiCo, designed by Edward Durell Stone, has served as the company's world headquarters since their move to the suburbs in 1967. After an estimated $243 million dollar renovation beginning in 2013, and despite company-wide downsizing, the campus continues to exist as it was originally designed despite the national trend of corporations moving back to city-centers.

The article below examines the events surrounding Pepsi's decision to move from its New York City headquarters and the influences that defined Stone's iconic design. A version of this article originally appeared on Smithsonian.com (September 2013)

After being abandoned in 2007, the preservation and use for Saarinen's Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey has been a reoccuring topic of discussion over recent years. Purchased by Somerset Development in 2013, the vision of Ralph Zucker, President of Somerset Development to reinvent the space as a "New Urbanist Hub" has begun to be realized.

Mayor Hinds, 230 students and 50 companies participated in the recent job fair hosted by Bell Works

During the Docomomo US National Symposium in Detroit this past week, attendees had the unique opportunity to visit the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Hosted by General Motors and the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, the tour not only allowed us to see the incredible architecture and design of Saarinen's corporate masterpiece but also showed the care and stewardship as the complex continues to age.

The excerpt below takes a look back at the vision that both Eero Saarinen and Harley Earl had for General Motors and how it redefined the image and perception of what the corporate campus could and should be.

Docomomo US has been made aware of a looming threat to Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross/Blue Shield building (1960) in Boston. The city is considering five proposals from firms to develop a prominant site next to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building. Four out of the five proposals pose no threat to the Rudolph designed building and one proposal is unclear of its effects on the building. The proposalfrom developer Trans National plans to demolish the building during the second phase of construction. Candidates will be interviewed in the beginning of June. Docomomo US and Docomomo US/New England are monitoring the situation as it unfolds.

For several years members of the Atlanta/Fulton County Library Authority, the agency responsible for area library service, have proposed abandoning its Central Library, Marcel Breuer’s last built project before his death, for a new “iconic” library. The structure is similar in character to the recently restored and adapted Met Breuer, the former Whitney Museum in Manhattan. The stated justification for this proposal is one part criticism of Brutalist architecture and one part failure to maintain the relevancy of the library system in a time when the primacy of the printed book is being called in to question by a plethora of digital offerings.

Public sculpture in New Jersey is plentiful (numbering over seven hundred pieces statewide), with works by significant artists that tell many fascinating stories about our history, our values, and our aspirations. Generally, the sculpture created for placement in the public realm in New Jersey and beyond during the 19th and 20th centuries was always more stylistically conservative than sculpture created for broad artistic purposes, even within the oeuvre of a single artist. During the Modern era, this continued to be the case, with most works produced in a representational rather than abstract style.

Baltimore’s public schools are home to over 120 public art commissions—most of these works tied to a local boom in school building construction during the 1960s and 1970s. While some are the work of nationally known modern artists and designers, like Michio Ihara, Gyorgy Kepes, and Harry Bertoia, others are the work of artists, architects and designers with a regional practice or local following; some of whom had few commissions outside of Baltimore, or no public work outside of these midcentury school buildings.